John Wayne Airport ready for Thanksgiving crowds

Just in time for the holiday crowds, officials at John Wayne Airport in Orange County say they have repaired a faulty baggage-handling system at a new terminal that opened last week as part of a $543-million expansion project.

The pressure was on at the airport because the new terminal -- Terminal C -- opened Monday with a baggage system that had failed to pass a certification test by the Transportation Security Administration. The system combines the conveyor belts installed by the airport with the baggage screening machines of the TSA.

Without TSA certification, the system was shut down, and passengers traveling through Terminal C on Southwest Airlines or Frontier Airlines were forced to hike over to Terminal B to fetch their luggage.

But airport officials had good news Friday. They announced that the baggage-handling system had been certified and would be operating by Sunday.

At least 386,000 Southern Californians are expected to fly for the holiday weekend, a 1.9% increase over last year, according to a forecast from the Auto Club of Southern California.

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-- Hugo Martin

Photo: The new terminal at John Wayne Airport. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Long Beach World Trade Center sale stalled

Plans by the Port of Long Beach to buy the Long Beach World Trade Center office complex have stalled.

The due diligence period of the planned transaction expired last week without the Board of Harbor Commissioners agreeing to complete the $130-million deal, effectively killing it.

Commissioners earlier split 2 to 2 on a vote with President Susan Wise abstaining because she and her husband lease space in the Ocean Boulevard tower.

The owners of the trade center, Legacy Partners, asked the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to rule on whether Wise’s recusal must stand and are waiting for a decision.

“If she is allowed to vote and she votes no, we’re big boys and will move on,” said Greg Hall, a managing director at Legacy. “We just wanted to see a fair vote.”

Legacy is not marketing the 575,000-square-foot building to other potential buyers, he said.

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Photo: Long Beach World Trade Center. Credit: Legacy Partners

Prices for Thanksgiving travel and feast going up

If you plan on traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, the cost of your trip is likely to be higher than last year, and the financial pain could strike almost every aspect of your vacation. Even the cost of the turkey dinner.

The average airfare for travel to the top 10 most popular destinations in the U.S. for Nov. 23 to Nov. 27 has jumped 11% over last year, according to an analysis by Orbitz, one of the nation’s busiest travel websites. That means the average round-trip ticket for Thanksgiving rose to $373 from about $340.

Flights to New York for the holiday will rise the most, jumping 20% over last year, with an average round-trip price of $342, according to Orbitz. Round-trip flights to Los Angeles will increase 12% to $429, according to the travel website.

Meanwhile, the average hotel rate for the nation’s top 25 destinations for Nov. 24 to Nov. 28 is expected to rise nearly 5% to $126.35 a night, according to a report by Travelclick, a New York company that provides e-commerce products and services to the hotel industry.

New York has the highest average hotel rates, $205.99 per night, an increase of 3.7% over last year, according to Travelclick. In Los Angeles, the average hotel rate will go up 4.6% to $112.42 a night.

You won’t escape the higher prices by driving: Gas prices reached the highest levels ever in the week prior to Thanksgiving, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area was $3.82 a gallon last week,  66 cents higher than the same time last year.

And with food prices on the rise, the American Farm Bureau Federation is predicting that the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. will rise 13% this year, the biggest increase in two decades.

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Photo credit: Reuters

TSA says no new study of scanner health effects needed

TSA chief John Pistole is backing off on a promise to have an independent panel look into the health effects of the full-body scanners used to screen passengers at the nation’s airports.

Pistole told a congressional committee early this month that he was concerned that some travelers still fear they will be harmed by going through airport scanners that use the so-called backscatter technology, which relies on radiation to detect objects hidden under the clothes of passengers.

“We will conduct an independent study to address that,” he told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

But last week Pistole changed his tune, saying the Transportation Security Administration recently received a draft report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security that confirms the conclusion of previous independent studies -- that the scanners are safe for all passengers.

For now, Pistole said another study is not needed. But, he told CNN last week, he will “work with Congress to see whether that addresses their concerns.” For good reason: Congress approves the TSA’s annual budget.

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Photo: A TSA official demonstrates how the full-body scanners are used at Los Angeles International Airport. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times 

Apartments under construction at Wilshire and Barrington

Construction of a six-story apartment building got underway last week at Wilshire Boulevard and Barrington Avenue in West Los Angeles, one of the area’s major intersections.

The property, formerly anchored by a liquor store and shoe store, was one of the most underutilized sites in West Los Angeles, said Ken Kahan, president of California Landmark, the Los Angeles company building the $35-million complex.

The apartment building called the bw replaces the previous plan for the site, a 28-story condominium building approved in 2004. Condo values and sales fell in the economic downturn, however.

“A high-rise condominium tower does not work in today’s market,” Kahan said.

Set to open in August 2013, the bw will have 78 units expected to rent for $2,200 to $4,000 a month. The design by Los Angeles-based PK Architecture calls for a rooftop garden, modernist lobby and a gym.

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Image: The planned bw apartment complex at Wilshire and Barrington. Credit: California Landmark

Voices of the Near Poor

When the Census Bureau this month released a new measure of poverty, meant to better count disposable income, it began altering the portrait of national need.

The new method, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, was designed to add in many of the things the old measure ignored, like the hundreds of billions the needy receive in food stamps and tax credits. At the same time, it subtracted the similarly large sums lost to taxes, medical care and work expenses.

One surprising difference with the new measure, outlined in an article today, was the 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line. That category, sometimes called “near poor,” was 76 percent higher than the official account, which was published in September. (The portion of people under the poverty line, meanwhile, increased by just 5 percent in the new measure.)

About a fifth of the people who appear near poor in the new measure are lifted out of poverty by benefits the old measure ignores, like food stamps and tax credits. But more than half were pulled down into near poverty from higher income levels by taxes, medical costs and work expenses like child care and gas. Taken together with people under the poverty line, a full third of Americans – or about 100 million people – live in poverty or in the economically vulnerable area just above it.

In Washington and its suburbs, the near poor are people with incomes between $31,693 and $47,539 for a family of four with a mortgage. Reporters talked to people in the Washington area this week with incomes in this category. They spoke of the knife-edge quality of their lives, in which one unexpected bill could knock them off balance. Many owned the usual trappings of middle-class life – cars, houses, cellphones and air-conditioners. But payments on those possessions were juggled, often unsuccessfully, depending on the unpredictable tides of their incomes. None saw themselves as poor. Most saw themselves as part of the middle class. But they focused on how hard they had to struggle to remain there.

Here are some of their stories:

Debra Jeje earned about $31,000 last year as a secretary in an emergency room in a hospital in Washington. She struggles to pay her bills, which come to about $2,300 a month, including groceries. She sells Mary Kay make-up for extra income. Gas, health insurance premiums and taxes put Ms. Jeje just above poverty line.

“What stresses me out most is payday,” said Ms. Jeje, who is 50 and has one son living with her. “I don’t have any extra money left over. My salary is less than my bills.”

Her job, she said, pays too little.

“We’re on the front lines,” she said. “There’s stress and headaches and ups and downs in the emergency room. You really feel that you’re worth more.”

Bille Allison, a health care worker with two children, earns $39,000 a year drawing blood at a doctor’s office in Maryland. She qualified for the earned income tax credit last year, bringing her income to $42,000. But work expenses dragged her down. She pays $500 a month for day care for her 4-year-old daughter, $100 a month for bus and train fare to get to work, and $200 a month for health insurance – bringing her income down to about $32,000. Some months she is able to save enough for game tokens and a meal at Chuck E. Cheese for her daughter. Other months she can only afford to pay half her bills. She was turned away from the food stamps office because her income was too high.

“I tried everything, and it’s like, nope, you make too much,” said Ms. Allison, who is 42 and divorced. “They tell you you have to work to get help, but then you work, and you still can’t get help.”

Jennifer Bangura works at Georgetown University Hospital as a cashier. Together with her husband, a driver for a catering company, their family income is just under $50,000, enough to pay a mortgage of $800 on a house she purchased in 1992. But after taxes, medical costs and the gas to get to work, they slip into the category of near poor. Their situation has been made worse by a second mortgage, taken out several years ago to raise money for their daughter’s college tuition. The monthly payment shot up to $2,200, an amount she says is now untenable.

“It’s killing me,” said Ms. Bangura, who is 50 and originally from Jamaica. She said she has been making payments for years and that “to lose it now would tear me apart.”

Jessie Adams, a floor refinisher and his wife, a secretary, together earn about $49,000 – too much to qualify for the earned income tax credit and food stamps, but too little to live without worrying about finances. Taxes and monthly subway commuting costs bring them down into the area of near poor. They own electronics – two flat-screen TVs and an Xbox game console for their 10-year-old – but cannot afford a car or a down payment on a house. Mr. Adams has not taken his family out on a weekend for five months.

“It shouldn’t be like this,” he said. “Two people working full time in the house, we should be able to save, to take a vacation. But it ain’t like that. It just ain’t like that.”

Podcast: European Debt, Bank Fees and Beats Headphones

New governments have been installed in Italy and Greece and Greek debt restructuring is under way, but European credit markets remain shaky.

One cause may be the questions that are being raised about the status of credit default swaps that were bought as insurance in the event of a Greek default, Gretchen Morgenson says on the new Weekend Business podcast.

In her column in Sunday Business, she says that not all the holders of Greek bonds have agreed to take a “voluntary” discount, or haircut, on the debt. Some of them bought credit default swaps that, they believed, provided insurance in the event of a Greek default. If that insurance provides solid protection, then it may not be in their interest to agree to a reduction in the value of their bonds. But the usefulness of the credit default swaps isn’t entirely clear in this situation, adding another layer of difficulty to resolving the Greek crisis.

In a separate discussion, Richard Thaler, the behaviorial economist, says that while business executives realize that they shouldn’t allow their companies to become the butt of jokes on late-night talk shows, many of them don’t seem to know how to act on that principle. A case in point, he says, is the recent controversy over Bank of America’s decision to impose a fee for use of its debt cards — a fee that was later scrapped. In the Economic View column in Sunday Business, he writes that customers tend to be outraged when businesses appear to be “gouging” them. And people may get that impression when businesses begin to charge for services that had previously been free.

In another conversation on the podcast, David Gillen and Andrew Martin talk about the pricey Beats headphones being purveyed by Dr. Dre, the hip-hop artist, in a new business venture.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Gretchen Morgenson on European debt (27:05); news headlines (18:05); Beats headphones (14:32); Richard Thaler (7:25); the week ahead (1:49).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

The Sharp Increase in the Food Stamps Program

Casey B. Mulligan is an economics professor at the University of Chicago.

The poor economy is not the only reason that safety-net programs are spending more. The food stamp program is another example of a safety-net program that is significantly more costly than it was before the recession began.

Today’s Economist

Perspectives from expert contributors.

The Department of Agriculture’s food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides money to low-income households for the purpose of buying food, often in conjunction with cash assistance programs. Adjusting for inflation, the program spent more than twice as much in 2010 as it did in 2007, before the recession began.

Perspectives from expert contributors.

The Department of Agriculture found that the food-stamp spending increase “is likely attributable to the deterioration of the economy, expansions in SNAP eligibility, and continued outreach efforts.” Of particular relevance for the SNAP program is the fact that the poverty rate increased 18 percent, to 153 per thousand in 2010 from 130 per thousand Americans in 2007.

At least two eligibility expansions have occurred since the recession began: work requirements were lifted from April 1, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2010, and monthly income limits were 10 percent higher in the 2010 fiscal year than they were in the 2007 fiscal year, an increase about twice the rate of inflation over that period.

In addition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased maximum benefits by 13.6 percent, and the minimum benefit increased in October 2008. Increasingly, potential program participants have been given the opportunity to apply for benefits on the Internet.

The declining economy alone, under the previous rules, would have raised the spending on food stamps by 18 percent. But the revised provisions, enacted largely in response to the recession, are responsible for a greater share of the increase. The following table breaks down the program’s spending growth into three components: deterioration of the economy, relaxed eligibility rules and increased maximum benefits.

The top row of the table is actual program spending for 2007 and 2010, adjusting for inflation and population. The second row of the table estimates the program’s hypothetical spending growth with 2007 eligibility rules, by assuming that real spending per capita increased since 2007 only in proportion to increases in the poverty rate, plus the 13.6 percent benefit increase of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The last row assumes that real spending per capita increased only with the poverty rate. Under either scenario, the hypothetical spending increases are significant but well less than half of the actual spending increases.

Over all, the table suggests that most growth in spending on SNAP is due to changes in eligibility rules and increases in payments per eligible person. The program’s spending would certainly have grown if benefit rules had remained as they were in 2007, but much less than it actually did. And those more generous provisions are now likely to be here to stay, even if the conditions that prompted them abate.

Wasting Medicare Money?

Here’s a clever idea for how to save Medicare some cash without hurting patients. Don’t pay for treatments found to be useless.

FLOYD NORRIS

Notions on high and low finance.

The Food and Drug Administration today revoked the approval of the drug Avastin as a treatment for breast cancer, saying, according to the Times article, that “the drug was not helping breast cancer patients to live longer or control their tumors, but did expose them to potentially serious side effects such as severe high blood pressure and hemorrhaging.”

Notions on high and low finance.

The drug remains on the market for other uses, meaning doctors can prescribe it if they wish to do so. The article states it is most likely that private insurers will refuse to cover the $88,000 cost of the drug, but that “Medicare, however, has said it would continue to pay for the drug’s use in breast cancer.”

How can that be?

The article explains:

Medicare is obligated to pay for off-label use of cancer drugs that are listed in references known as compendia, such as the one published by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an organization of major cancer hospitals.

In July, shortly after the F.D.A. advisory committee voted to revoke the approval, a committee of breast cancer specialists assembled by the cancer network reaffirmed that Avastin should remain listed as “an appropriate therapeutic option for metastatic breast cancer.”

So a committee that includes doctors who may stand to profit from getting the government to pay for useless medicines — or even have ties to the drug maker — can get to overrule the F.D.A. on how to spend scarce taxpayer money.

Can anyone explain why there should a law requiring that Medicare to pay for off-label uses, other than by referring to the lobbying power of pharmaceutical companies such as Genentech, which makes Avastin?

Higher FHA loan limits reinstated for high-cost housing markets

Uncle Sam has thrown California and other high-priced housing markets a lifeline.

President Obama on Friday signed into law a bill that will reinstate higher limits for Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages in high-cost areas. In expensive housing areas such as Los Angeles and Orange counties, the limit for these FHA-backed loans had dropped to $625,500 from $729,750 on Oct. 1. The change became effective Friday.

Similar ceilings applying to loans that can be backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not increase. The California Assn. of Realtors and its larger national partner association had lobbied for all of the loan limits to be reinstated.

The group is “pleased the Senate and House were able to come to a reasonable compromise,” LeFrancis Arnold, president of the group, said in a statement Friday. “However, we are disappointed that the Senate and House could not agree on increasing the loan limits for Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-insured loans.”

A bipartisan group of California lawmakers had sought the increase of all of the old limits, but the House Appropriations Committee had raised concern that Fannie and Freddie, which have received more than $150 billion in financial rescue money from taxpayers, have received public scrutiny for “questionable business practices,” The Times previously reported.

The FHA has also come under increased scrutiny as that agency said in a report to Congress this week that it could be headed for its own taxpayer bailout.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), in a statement said the passage of the higher FHA loan limits would help “prevent a collapse of housing prices in high-cost areas like Los Angeles.”

Indeed, sales of properties in Orange and Los Angeles counties with loans between $625,500 from $729,750 fell sharply, to 102 last month, according to San Diego real estate firm DataQuick. That was a 71% decline from 350 in September and down 71.5% from 358 sales in October 2010.

But the Obama Administration warned this week that it is important for the federal government to get out of the mortgage business.

“We believe that lowering the limits is a step to ensuring that private capital will return to the market,” Carol Galante, the acting FHA commissioner, said during a congressional confirmation hearing Thursday. “We understand at the present time FHA is playing a somewhat outsized role in the market.”

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twitter.com/alejandrolazo

Photo: Simon Salloom, a Coldwell Banker real estate agent, walks through a condominium in Santa Monica. Credit: Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times

Ask Laz: When a jerk cuts you off [Video]

What can you do when you encounter someone driving recklessly or dangerously? Is it legal to post pictures of the person's car online? Los Angeles Times consumer columnist David Lazarus offers some advice.

 

Railroads reach tentative accord with 4 more labor unions

A bargaining committee representing more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the two that serve Southern California, have reached tentative contract agreements with four more labor unions after 22 months of talks. The accords lessen the chance of a national strike that the American Assn. of Railroads said could cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion a day.

The tentative pacts announced today by the National Railway Labor Conference were reached with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Blacksmiths, Iron Ship Builders, Forgers and Helpers; the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Assn.; the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers; and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen.

Details were not released pending ratification by union members.

The railroads, which include the western lines BNSF Railway and Union Pacific, have now reached tentative agreements with 10 unions representing more than 60% of the 132,000 employees affected by this round of bargaining.

Only three more unions are still negotiating. A 30-day cooling-off period, during which no strike can be called, remains in effect until Dec. 6. This latest round of bargaining began in January 2010.

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Photo: A BNSF Railway cargo container train rolls into Winslow, Ariz., on its way toward California. BNSF is one of more than 30 U.S. railroads that have reached tentative accords with 10 labor unions after 22 months of bargaining. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Exports help drive record U.S. refinery production

The amount of gasoline and other fuels produced by U.S. refineries reached a new record for October, compared with the same month in previous years, according to the American Petroleum Institute's (API) monthly statistical release. But a big part of that story was where some of that production was headed -- overseas.

U.S. refineries produced more than 9.4 million barrels of gasoline and more than 4.5 million barrels of distillates, such as diesel, in October. The gasoline figure represented a 4% increase and the distillate figure was a rise of 4.9% over the same month a year earlier, the API said.

The API also noted that U.S. petroleum exports to other countries soared by 37.6%, to more than 3.4 million barrels in October compared with the same month in 2010.

Exports of refined fuels, particularly diesel, have reached record levels, according to separate statistics compiled by the U.S. Energy Department, reaching more than 95 million barrels in August. That's an increase of more than 107% since August of 2007.

This comes at a time when gasoline prices in the U.S. are at their highest levels ever for this week in November. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. Friday, for example, is $3.38, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report or 28.5 cents a gallon higher than the old record set in 2007.

In California, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline Friday, is $3.79 or 39.6 cents a gallon above the old mark, also set in 2007.

U.S. diesel prices are also worse than ever for this time of year. Nationally, the average price of a gallon of diesel Friday is $3.99, according to the AAA, or 58.6 cents above the old record set five years ago. In California, the average price for a gallon of diesel is $4.31 or 69.3 cents above the old mark set in 2007.

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Photo: The sprawling Conoco-Phillips oil refinery in Wilmington. The nation's refineries produced a record amount of fuel in October compared with the same month in previous years. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Pepsi NEXT, a mid-calorie soda, to debut in spring

For those discerning drinkers who scoff at zero-calorie cola but are fussy about their figures, PepsiCo thinks its upcoming Pepsi NEXT low-sugar beverage hits the sweet spot in the middle.

The drink, which has been in testing in Iowa and Wisconsin since July, has 60% less sugar than a standard Pepsi can, with 60 calories for every 12 ounces compared with the usual 150 calories.

The beverage maker now plans to start selling Pepsi NEXT nationwide in the spring, according to the Associated Press. But don't call it diet -- PepsiCo says the new soda tastes like its full-calorie beverages.

Hopefully, the new offering fares better than previous mid-calorie attempts such as Pepsi XL and Pepsi Edge.

Soda sales are slipping amid an increased nationwide focus on health, with Coke volume down 0.5% in 2010, Diet Coke falling 1% and Pepsi-Cola tumbling 4.8%, according to Beverage-Digest. 

Several major restaurant chains, including Denny’s and Chili’s, have pledged to offer soft drink-free meal options for children as part of the Kids Live Well campaign. Michelle Obama recently extracted a promise from Darden Restaurants to make 1% milk the default beverage on its children’s menus.

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Photo: PepsiCo

Fast-casual, to-go IHOP Express opens in San Diego

IHOP is targeting the Panera and Chipotle crowd with a fast-casual “Express” version of its standard sit-down restaurants.

Customers at the new model, first tested at college campuses and military bases and now open in San Diego’s Gaslamp District, order at a counter for food that they can take on the go.

Instead of IHOP’s usual sprawling platters, menu items such as the Cup O’ Pancakes and the Ham & Cheese Crepette will be served in smaller portions and at lower prices.

IHOP still plans to open at least one of its normal-sized stores each week for the rest of the year. The 53-year-old chain has more than 1,500 locations around the country.

But slowing traffic caused by the economy along with changing consumer tastes have caused the casual, sit-down dining industry to falter. Many diners have defected to fast-casual chains, which are known for offering a lower price-point along with speed and quality.

So table-service restaurants such as IHOP are copying the competition.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers this month revealed a fast-casual concept called Red Robin’s Burger Works, where is Banzai beef burger is $5.99 compared with nearly $10 at the original restaurants. 

Starting in Orange County last year, Denny’s Corp. began opening Denny’s Cafés featuring streamlined menus, counter order and smaller buildings in an attempt to break into tightly-packed urban markets.

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Photo: IHOP's Pancake Stackers. Credit: Associated Press / IHOP Restaurants

Consumer Confidential: The skinny on Black Friday; Keds recall

Here's your feelin'-stronger-every-day Friday roundup of cosnumer news from around the Web:

-- Getting all excited about Black Friday? Maybe you'll want to rethink things. Here are a few reasons why the Black Friday hoopla is overblown: Most "door busters" are second-tier products offered by less-prominent brands. Many of the same deals you'll find in the store can be found online. Layaway may not be available until after Black Friday ends. Return policies are often stricter for discounted goods. And more importantly, you're likely to overspend after lining up in the middle of the night to get a shot at some bargain-basement product. The stores know this, which is why they go through all this fuss in the first place. Just saying. (MoneyWatch)

-- Heinz wants to make a little ketchup go a long way. The world's biggest ketchup maker's second-quarter profit fell as it focused on fast-growing emerging markets. But in struggling developed markets such as the U.S. and Europe, the company is shrinking product sizes and selling lower-priced products such as ketchup for 99 cents and beans for around a dollar to appeal to budget-stretched shoppers. Many people are living paycheck to paycheck, buying only what they can afford rather than bigger bottles or cans of food that might be more cost-effective. Heinz says that to meet consumers' needs, it is selling pouches instead of bottles of some of its condiments, reintroducing bean products to the U.S. and selling a bag of french fries for family dinners at $1.99. (Associated Press)

-- Heads up: Keds is recalling about 45,000 Know It All girls' shoes. Ornamental stars on the heel of the shoe may loosen, posing a laceration hazard. The company has received 27 reports of cuts and scratches resulting from metal stars that loosened from the heel of the shoe. This recall involves Keds girls' rubber-soled shoes. The shoes are black and pink, with white trim and a pink loop on the heel. The Chinese-made shoes were sold in girls' sizes 12 to 5 at various department stores and online retailers. Consumers should take them away from children immediately and contact Collective Brands to receive a gift card for $30 redeemable at Stride Rite stores or striderite.com. (ConsumerAffairs.com)

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Black Friday may be more hassle than it's worth. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

 

Thanksgiving travel in Southern California expected to rise

Expect the roads to be more crowded than usual during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

That's because an estimated 3.3 million Southern Californians plan to travel for the holiday, a 4.1% increase over last year, according to a forecast released Friday by the Auto Club of Southern California.

And despite higher fuel costs over last Thanksgiving, 86%, or 2.8 million of those travelers, will travel by car, also a 4.1% increase over last year. Another 386,000 will fly, a 1.9% increase, according to the Auto Club forecast.

The projected increase will mark the first holiday of the year with a growth in travelers. Travel experts attribute the rise to pent-up demand.

“Those who have put off vacations all year, or maybe for a couple of years, are realizing they need to get away and they are finding ways to do it even on a tight budget,” said Filomena Andre, the Auto Club’s vice president for travel.

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-- Hugo Martin

Photo: A typical traffic jam in Southern California. Roadways could be especially crowded over Thanksgiving weekend as holiday travel is expected to rise. Credit: Los Angeles Times

California unemployment rate edges downward in October

California's unemployment rate fell by two-tenths of a percentage point to 11.7% in October as the state created 25,700 new jobs, the Employment Development Department reported. The agency also reported Friday that it had revised job growth in September upward, to 39,200.

The state's unemployment rate one year ago was 12.5%.

The total of net new hirings in 2011 so far was 192,900, a substantial number but still a long ways off for compensating for the 1.3 million jobs lost in the recession of 2007-2009.

The national unemployment rate for October was 9%.

Seven categories of employment showed growth in October: construction, information, financial activities, professional and business services, educational and health services and leisure and hospitality.

The number of jobs decreased in manufacturing, trade and transportation, government and mining and logging, the EDD said.

Unemployment in Los Angeles County also fell by 0.2% to 12.2% in October, the EDD said.

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Photo: Job-seeker at Career Partners center in Rosemead. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Southland aerospace innovations snag magazine awards

Southern California's aerospace technology has recently received national recognition.

This week's Time magazine cover features Monrovia-based drone maker AeroVironment Inc.’s Nano Hummingbird as one of the best inventions of 2011. See it at left or here.

The Times wrote in February about the little flying machine that’s built to look like a bird for potential use in spy missions.

Equipped with a camera, the drone can fly at speeds of up to 11 miles per hour, AeroVironment said. It can hover and fly sideways, backward and forward, as well as go clockwise and counterclockwise, by remote control for about eight minutes.

The pocket-size drone also recently received Popular Science magazine’s Best of What's New award and was designated "grand award winner" in the security category.

Another grand award winner -- this time in the aviation & space category -- was Hawthorne- based Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Dragon space capsule.

Last December the company, better known as SpaceX, became the first private company to blast a spacecraft into Earth's orbit and have it return intact. The company wants to take over the responsibility of running cargo missions and possibly carrying astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA now that the space shuttle is retired.

SpaceX has been planning to launch the capsule and dock it to the International Space Station in a test flight aboard its Falcon 9 rocket this year, but delays will push that launch into next year.

The editors of Popular Science also chose Falls Church, Va.-based Northrop Grumman Corp.’s bat-winged experimental drone, the X-47B, to receive a 2011 Best of What's New award in the aviation & space category.

The drone, which resembles a miniature B-2 stealth bomber, is being developed by engineers in El Segundo to take off from an aircraft carrier, fly to an enemy target and then land back on a carrier, all without a pilot. It’s currently in test flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

If you're interested in seeing the award announcements in print, both the Popular Science and Time issues are on newsstands now.

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Image: Cover of Time magazine's Nov. 28 issue. Credit: Time Inc.

An Edge in Science Among the Foreign-Born

I’ve previously written about the wage advantage — as well as the simple likelihood of finding and holding onto a job — that comes with a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering or math.

The study in that case concluded that many American technology and scientific companies are forced to recruit from abroad.

But they can also hire from the foreign-born population currently in the United States. According to a new Census report, a much higher proportion of foreign-born residents 25 or older with bachelor’s degrees earned their degrees in science, technology, engineering or math — the STEM fields — than native-born holders of bachelor’s degrees.

The Census report looked at a broader range of degrees than usually considered when defining STEM fields. Majors analyzed by the Census authors, Christine Gambino and Thomas Gryn, included computers, math, statistics; biology, agriculture and environmental science; physical and related sciences; psychology; social sciences; engineering; and multidisciplinary sciences.

Among the foreign-born bachelor’s degree holders, 46 percent had majored in a science or engineering field. That compares with 33 percent of native-born college graduates. One-third of all residents with a B.A. in engineering are foreign-born.

Of the 4.2 million foreign-born residents who have science- or engineering-related bachelor’s degrees, 57 percent came from Asia, while 18 percent came from Europe and 16 percent from Latin America. Immigrants from India produced the largest number of college graduates in science and engineering, followed by Chinese-born immigrants.

Like American-born women, foreign-born women are generally less likely to major in STEM fields. While 51 percent of foreign-born college graduates were women, women represented only 37 percent of those with science or engineering degrees.

Tackling Income Inequality

Laura D’Andrea Tyson is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and served as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters have focused attention on rising income inequality in the United States, and they are right to do so.

Today’s Economist

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Income and wealth disparities have reached levels not seen in the United States since the Roaring Twenties. And the concentration of income and wealth contributed to the speculative excesses that brought on the 2008 financial crisis (see Robert Reich’s “Aftershock” and Raghuram Rajan’s “Fault Lines”).

Perspectives from expert contributors.

According to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, rising income inequality is a long-term trend that began in the late 1970s and strengthened during the last two decades. The report confirms the protesters’ belief that the rising gap between the income of the top 1 percent and the income of everyone else is a major factor behind escalating inequality.

In the last 20 years, inequality has been largely a story of a small elite – not just the top 1 percent, but the top 0.1 percent – pulling away from everyone else in every source of household income: labor income, capital income and business income.

The top 1 percent’s share of national income has also been rising in most other advanced industrial countries, but it is by far the largest and has grown the most in the United States (see Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson’s “Winner-Take-All Politics”).

Why have incomes of those in the top 1 percent soared? Their occupations provide some clues. From 1979 to 2005, nonfinancial executives, managers and supervisors accounted for 31 percent of the top 1 percent, medical professionals for 16 percent, financial professionals for 14 percent and lawyers for 8 percent.

Together, executives, managers, supervisors and financial professionals accounted for 60 percent of the increase in the top 1 percent’s income, with a widening compensation differential between those in the financial sector and those in other sectors of the economy after 1990.

Superstar athletes, actors and musicians, often portrayed among the super-rich, accounted for about 3 percent of the top 1 percent from 1979 to 2005, far less than the less glamorous people (mostly men) who lead and advise America’s businesses.

Researchers have identified several reasons for the rapid growth in incomes for the occupations that make up most of the top 1 percent, including “winner take all” technical innovations that have changed the labor market for superstars in all fields; increases in business size and complexity; a growing premium for highly specialized skills; changes in the forms of executive compensation, including the rise of stock options and weaknesses in corporate governance; and the increasing size of the financial sector.

All of these factors have played a role, but there is no definitive evidence on their relative significance.

Growing inequality in labor compensation played a major role in increasing income inequality between the top 1 percent and the rest of the population from 1979 to 2007. Over the period, however, both the growing inequality in business income, including income from small firms, partnerships and S corporations, and in capital income in the form of dividends, interest and capital gains, as well as the rising share of these forms of income in household income, played a more significant role, especially after 2000.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, from 2002 to 2007 more than four-fifths of the increase in income inequality was the result of an increase in the share of household income from capital gains, with the remainder the result of an increase in other forms of capital income.

Capital and business income are much more unevenly distributed than labor income and have become more so over time. Capital gains income is the most unevenly distributed — and volatile — source of household income.

The top 0.1 percent earns about half of all capital gains, and such gains account for about 60 percent of the income of the top 400 taxpayers.

Large cuts in federal tax rates on capital and business income have been very beneficial to the top 1 percent over time. In 1978, a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president reduced the top tax rate on most long-term capital gains to 28 percent from about 35 percent. It was reduced again to 20 percent in 1981 and then raised back to 28 percent in 1987, where it remained for a decade.

While serving as President Clinton’s national economic adviser, I led a study by his economic team of the likely effects of reducing the rate. We concluded that a cut would decrease future tax revenue, would contribute to rising inequality and would not increase saving and investment as its advocates asserted. Despite these warnings, in 1997 the president agreed to cut the rate to 20 percent, as part of a budget compromise with the Republican Congress.

Then, with Democratic support, President Bush reduced the tax rate on capital gains and other forms of capital income to a record low of 15 percent in 2003. Under the “carried interest” provisions of United States tax law, this rate also applied to fees earned by hedge fund and private equity managers, a rapidly rising cohort within the top 1 percent.

As a result of these changes, along with President Bush’s across-the-board cuts in income tax rates, federal taxes as a share of household income fell for the top 1 percent. Over all, the Bush tax cuts were the largest — not only in dollar terms but also as a percentage of income — for high-income households and increased the concentration of after-tax income at the top. Far from curbing escalating inequality, the Bush tax cuts exacerbated the problem.

While the federal tax code is still progressive, its progressivity has eroded, with a significant percentage of the richest now paying a much lower tax rate than the merely rich and the middle class. (Warren E. Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary because most of her income comes in the form of wages that are subject to both federal income tax and the payroll tax while most of his income comes in the form of capital gains and dividends that are taxed at 15 percent and that are not subject to the payroll tax.)

A credible plan to reduce the long-run deficit requires a significant increase in revenue. Polls indicate that the majority of Americans, like the Wall Street protesters, believe that higher taxes on the rich are warranted both to reduce the deficit and to contain mounting inequality. I agree.

Restoring the top income tax rates and capital gains and dividends tax rates to their levels under President Clinton, as President Obama has repeatedly proposed, would be useful first steps. Taxing some carried interest as ordinary income would make the tax system more efficient and curtail outsize compensation in the financial sector. Adding a progressive consumption tax would augment revenue while encouraging saving and discouraging spending on luxury goods, both by the very rich and by those down the income ladder struggling to keep up.

The majority of Americans, like the Wall Street protesters, also believe the corporate tax rate should be raised. I disagree.

For reasons I discussed in an earlier Economix post, I believe that this rate should be reduced – a position advocated by both President Obama and former President Clinton in his new book. Raising tax rates on capital gains and dividends to the levels under President Clinton would curb the growth of income for the top 1 percent and could finance a substantial cut in the corporate tax rate that would bolster wages and job opportunities for American workers.

Jon B. Lovelace, who led American Funds group, dies at 84

Jon B. Lovelace, long-time head of the Los Angeles-based American Funds mutual fund company, has died. He was 84.

His family said Lovelace died of natural causes at his home in Santa Barbara on Wednesday.

Lovelace is credited with some of the key innovations that helped set the stage for American Funds' explosive growth from the 1980s through the mid-2000s, as it became synonymous with successful buy-and-hold stock investing.

The funds' parent firm, Capital Group Cos., now manages about $1.2 trillion in all, most of that in 33 mutual funds owned by tens of millions of Americans. The company’s huge flagship funds include Growth Fund of America and Investment Co. of America.

Lovelace also nurtured an egalitarian environment at Capital, the polar opposite of the authoritarian regimes of many Wall Street firms.

His daughter, Carey, once referred to him as a “Buddhist businessman” who disdained hierarchy and personal aggrandizement.

Although Lovelace ultimately held the title of chairman of Capital's fund business until he retired in 2005, “he liked the symbolism of not having titles,” said Paul Haaga Jr., a Capital executive who joined the firm in 1985. “He led quietly, and he led through influence.”

In 1958, Lovelace launched a new approach to mutual fund management: Rather than having a single individual manage a portfolio, Lovelace created a “multiple counselor” system, whereby four or more managers would independently run slices of a fund.

It fit with Lovelace's dislike of the traditional Wall Street “star” system. “Because of the nature of our structure, we're not highly dependent on one person as some organizations are,” Lovelace told The Times in 1990.

The multiple-counselor system produced powerful long-term investment returns on many of American's stock funds, which in turn made the company a favorite of brokerages eager to sell winning products.

Go here for Lovelace’s full obituary in The Times.

-- Tom Petruno

Photo: Jon B. Lovelace. Credit: Capital Group Cos.

 

United States of Hunger

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Casey Mulligan noted Wednesday on Economix that United States spending on food stamps had skyrocketed since the recession began. A new Census Bureau report provides a look at just how big the program has become. Last year, more than one in 10 families received food stamps, with some states having significantly higher participation rates. In Oregon, the share was nearly one in five.

Dollars to doughnuts.

Here’s a map showing what share of families in each state received these benefits to help them buy food:

In Oregon, 17.8 percent of families received food stamps, officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the highest rate in the nation. Oregon was followed by Tennessee (17 percent) and Michigan (16.9 percent).

The state with the lowest SNAP participation rate was Wyoming, with a rate of 6.2 percent. The next-lowest rates were in New Jersey (6.8 percent) and California (7.4 percent).

I must admit I’m a bit puzzled by some of these numbers. I would have expected California’s food stamp take-up rate, for example, to be much higher, since its unemployment rate is 11.9 percent, the state is broke, and so many cities there suffered from housing busts.

I did a quick scatterplot showing the relationship between median household income and food stamp take-up rates, and the relationship is relatively weak:

The relationship between unemployment rates and food stamp take-up rates was even weaker:

Of course, there are a lot of variables not at all reflected by unemployment and median income figures, such as inequality and state safety net programs.

All the Single (Old) Ladies

I sometimes hear women in New York lament that there are many more single gals than single guys around. To that I say: Just wait until you turn 90.

A new Census Bureau report finds that there were 457,155 men and 1,304,615 women over the age of 90 from 2006 to 2008. That’s almost three women for each man, not counting the younger singles they could pair with.

That works out to a lot of single female nonagenarians (and centenarians). Of men over 90, 42.9 percent are married. The share for their female counterparts is 6.3 percent.

Two O.C. loan officers indicted in Las Vegas foreclosures case

In what appear to be the first criminal charges to stem from the fracas over improper foreclosures last year, two Southern California title loan officers have been indicted by a Nevada grand jury for allegedly filing tens of thousands of improper documents related to Las Vegas-area foreclosures.

The Clark County grand jury charged Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana on 606 counts, alleging that the two headed up a vast “robo-signing” operation that resulted in the filing of tens of thousands of fraudulent foreclosure documents.

The documents were filed with the Clark County recorder’s office between 2005 and 2008, according to the indictment. The two title loan officers worked for the firm Lender Processing Services, a foreclosure processing company based in Florida that has been used by most of the largest banks in the nation to process home repossessions.

"I am not allowed to speak with you. I have no comment at this time," Sheppard said when reached by phone. Trafford could not be reached for comment.

The two have not been arrested, a spokeswoman for Nevada Atty. Gen. Catherine Cortez Masto told The Associated Press. LPS said in a statement that it is working with the authorities.

The company, in its statement, acknowledged that some of its documents were flawed but said the documents did not result in wrongful foreclosures.

“I am deeply committed to ensuring that LPS meets rigorous standards of professional conduct and operating excellence,” LPS Chief Executive Hugh Harris said in the statement. “I have full confidence in the ability of our leadership team and over 8,000 dedicated employees to deliver on that commitment."

Trafford is charged with 102 counts of offering false instruments for recording, a felony; false certification on certain instrument, a felony; and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public, a misdemeanor.

Sheppard is charged with 100 counts of offering false instruments for recording, a felony; false certification on certain instruments, a felony; and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public, a misdemeanor.

The indictment says that two title loan officers directed the fraudulent notarization and filing of paperwork used to initiate foreclosure on homeowners in the Las Vegas area. Nevada alleges that the two directed their employees to forge foreclosure documents, notarize the signatures on the documents they had forged and then file the fraudulent paperwork with the Clark County recorder's office in order to begin foreclosures on homes throughout the county.

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Photo: A foreclosure sign in front of a bank-owned home for sale in Las Vegas. Credit: Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images

Stocks, gold hit by broad sell-off on global jitters

Raise cash, head for the sidelines.

That was the guiding sentiment in stock and commodity markets Thursday, as some investors and traders sold what they could and looked for a hiding place amid fresh doubts about the global economy.

Commodities took the heaviest hit: Gold futures dived $54.00, or 3%, to $1,719.80 an ounce in New York, the biggest one-day drop since Sept. 23.

The ThomsonReuters/Jefferies CRB index of 19 commodities slumped 2.5%, the biggest decline since Sept. 30. Corn, wheat, oil, cotton and copper all were sharply lower.

“There is liquidation across the board,” said Frank Cholly Sr., a senior commodities broker at RJO Futures in Chicago.

On Wall Street, stocks ended broadly lower for a second day. The Dow Jones industrial average, which tumbled 190 points on Wednesday, fell 134.86 points, or 1.1%, to 11,770. That cut the index's year-to-date gain to 1.7%.

Broader indexes were weaker. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 1.7%; the Nasdaq composite lost 2%.

Some investors ran back to U.S. Treasury bonds, pushing the yield on the 10-year T-note down to 1.96% from 2.00% on Wednesday.

Many traders blamed continuing fears that Europe is headed for a major blow-up as its debt crisis worsens. Spain and France sold new bonds and were forced to pay yields far above the levels of a month ago.

General Motors Chief Executive Dan Akerson told the Detroit Economic Club that the European crisis is "much more serious" than the 2008 bursting of the credit bubble. GM shares fell 86 cents, or 3.8% to $21.79, a six-week low.

Still, Europe wasn’t a complete disaster Thursday: Italian bond yields pulled back from recent highs. And European stock markets were mostly down between 1% and 1.5%, relatively modest declines compared with the worst days of the last few months.

Meanwhile, markets seemingly ignored upbeat U.S. economic data, including a drop in new claims for jobless benefits to the lowest level since early April.

As they did in late September, some investors and traders may just be cashing out of whatever’s easiest to sell. That would include U.S. blue-chip stocks. The Dow is down 3.2% since Friday.

With so much uncertainty about Europe, and with the U.S. congressional deficit-cutting panel facing a Nov. 23 deadline to come up with a plan, some market players may just be calling it quits on 2011 early.

“I think it’s, ‘Just get out of things and wait til next year,’ ” said Frank Lesh, futures analyst at FuturePath Trading in Chicago.

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Photo: Gold jewelry, coins and bars are arranged for a photograph at a GoldMax store in Atlanta. Credit: Bloomberg News

A slow month for cargo at Long Beach port

The nation's second-busiest container port saw a sharp decline in cargo numbers in October, but there is a caveat. The Port of Long Beach is operating with just six terminal operators instead of the seven it had in 2010.

The Port of Long Beach is second only to the neighboring harbor of Los Angeles in the amount of cargo containers it moves annually. In October, the amount of imports, mostly from Asia, declined 20.8% to 240,248 containers from a year earlier. Exports through the port, mostly bound for Asia as well, were down 21.4% to 118,325 containerts, compared with October of 2010.

Overall, including empty containers that were being shipped back to Asia, Long Beach moved 487,665 containers, a drop of 20.5%.

One big factor was the absence of the Hyundai cargo terminal, which moved to the Port of Los Angeles. Hyundai had about 10% of the port's business and wasn't willing to wait as Long Beach embarks on a nine-year, $1-billion redevelopment project that will combine two aging shipping terminals into one modern facility that is expected to improve cargo-movement and reduce diesel emissions.

The port did get some good news this week. Its search for a successor for the retiring executive director, Richard D. Steinke, is over. Deputy Executive Director J. Christopher Lytle was selected as his replacement by the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners. Lytle will take over by the end of the year.

Lytle joined the port in 2006 as managing director of trade relations and port operations. He's a former vice president with the French shipping line CMA-CGM. He also held executive positions at P&O Ports North America, Sea-Land Service Inc. and APM (Maersk) Terminals of Denmark.

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-- Ronald D. White

Photo: A crane operator at Long Beach Container Terminal lifts a cargo container from a truck for loading onto an Orient Overseas Container Line ship. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Study: In some areas, risky loans punished the rich more than the poor

 

Five years into the housing bust, are rich or poor homeowners more likely to suffer foreclosure?

It all depends on which part of the country you're in, according to a Center for Responsible Lending study.

Low- and moderate-income borrowers have been most affected in cities such as Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis, where weak economies meant home prices didn't rise much even while much of the nation was caught up in the housing bubble, the nonprofit CRL said.

However, in areas that had strong housing appreciation before the collapse, such as California and Nevada, the opposite is true. In these areas, middle- and higher-income borrowers have been most likely to fall into foreclosure, according to CRL's study of 27 million mortgages over five years.

The explanation, CRL said Thursday, is that higher-income borrowers in expensive boom states wound up with a disproportionate number of high-risk loans, as did the lower-income residents of cities with weak economies and housing markets.

The rich borrowers were stretching to buy homes by using supposedly prime adjustable-rate loans requiring interest-only payments at first, or pay-option mortgages that allowed them to pay so little that their loan balance rose instead of fell. 

Overall, the CRL said, there was remarkably little difference in foreclosure rates between low- and high-income people who took out home loans from 2004 to 2008.

Among lower-income borrowers in that group, 15.9% had been foreclosed on or were seriously delinquent (meaning 60 days or more in arrears) by February 2011, the CRL study found.

Among middle-incomes borrowers, 14.7% fell into those categories, with 14.6% of high-income borrowers in the same straits.

But those slight differences contrasted with big gaps when researchers sorted troubled borrowers by type of housing market.

In weak markets, more than 10% of low-income borrowers had lost their homes to foreclosure, while less than 4% of higher-income borrowers had homes repossessed.

In the topsy-turvy world of the boom housing markets, more than 9% of higher-income borrowers had lost their homes, compared to less than 4% of low-income homeowners.

The study also found that:

-- Among homeowners who received loans from 2004 to 2008, 2.7 million households, or 6.4%, had lost their homes to foreclosure as of February 2011. Another 8.3%, or 3.6 million households, were at serious risk, defined as in the foreclosure process or more than 60 days past due on their mortgages.

-- The majority of people affected by foreclosures have been non-Latino white families. However, African American and Latino borrowers are more than twice as likely to lose their home to foreclosure as non-Latino white households -- 25% compared to 12%.

-- Racial and ethnic disparities in foreclosures persist even among higher-income groups. About 10% of higher-income African American borrowers and 15% of higher-income Latino borrowers have lost their home to foreclosure, compared with 4.6% of higher-income non-Latino white borrowers, the CRL said.

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 Photo: Foreclosed homes behind padlock in North Las Vegas. Credit: Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images

Construction of new homes increases, except in West

Construction of single-family U.S. homes appeared to pick up last month, but not in the West.

Single-family homes were started at a rate of 434,000, a 5.1% increase over the prior month.

The increase follows news of an increase builder sentiment. Economists called the jump in new single-family-home starts a positive sign, as the nation's beleaguered real estate market was at least showing life.

"This was a good report," Patrick Newport, U.S. economist with IHS Global Insight, wrote in a note Thursday. "It has supporting evidence that the single-family market is finally getting off the mat and that the multi-family segment is continuing to make small strides, and that we should expect good housing starts numbers the rest of this year."

Overall housing starts -- including the volatile apartment building sector -- fell in October 0.3% over the prior month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 628,000. The decline was attributed to a drop in apartment building construction.

The West was the only region that did not see an increase, falling 16.5%. Starts were up 17.2% in the Northeast, 9.7% in the Midwest and 1.6% in the South.

Another measure of housing activity considered less volatile than starts, permits issued, also showed new building gaining ground last month. New permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 653,000, 10.9% above September and 17.7% above October 2010.

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-- Alejandro Lazo

Photo:  Suburban homes under construction in Rancho Cucamonga. Credit: Getty Images

 

Workers win record number of bias cases in 2011, EEOC reports

More workers than ever sought help against office discrimination from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this year, the agency said this week.

More than 99,947 charges were filed in 2011 alleging unfair workplace practices based on race, sex, age, religion, disability and even family medical history, according to the EEOC’s annual performance report. 

That’s the highest number since the commission was launched through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The agency also won a record amount of monetary relief –- nearly $365 million -– for employees.

Over a year in which national unemployment remained stuck at around 9%, many workers are working longer hours for less pay, with older employees expecting to delay retirement.

The EEOC resolved 112,499 cases through a mix of investigations, conciliations, mediations and litigation, more than last year.

The agency won $3 million for 290 former 3M employees who had accused the company of denying leadership training to and laying off hundreds of workers over age 45. About 800 Verizon employees won a $20-million fund after challenging the company over claims that it disciplined or fired employees with disabilities.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Paul Taggart / Bloomberg

Consumer Confidential: Holiday travel, hybrids, teddy bear recall

Here's your three-times-a-lady Thursday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- What's the latest word on the living hell that is Thanksgiving travel? Here you go. About 42.5 million people in the United States are expected to hit the road to visit family and friends, the highest number of holiday travelers since the start of the recession. Travel tracker AAA says that 4% more Americans than last year will journey at least 50 miles from home, with about 90% of them driving. Another 8% plan to fly, but AAA notes that higher airfares and less available seats have forced many would-be fliers to drive instead. The remaining travelers plan to take buses, trains or other forms of transport. Also, those driving should expect to pay more at the pump. The average price of a gallon of gas so far this November is $3.42, up nearly 20% from last year’s $2.86. (Associated Press)

-- For drivers, hybrid vehicles can be a good deal safer than conventional cars. For pedestrians, though, they can be more dangerous because they can sneak right up on you. Occupants of hybrid vehicles sustain fewer injuries in crashes than those who are involved in accidents in non-hybrid cars, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute. The same study says hybrids cause more pedestrian crashes than their non-hybrid counterparts because their relatively quiet operation can make them stealthy on the road. The study suggests the weight of hybrids contributed to a 25% decrease in bodily injuries for those riding in the vehicles. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Heads up: Build-a-Bear Workshop is recalling more than 21,000 swimwear and inner tube sets sold in the U.S. and Canada. The inner tube accessory can be pulled over a small child's head, posing a strangulation hazard. Build-a-Bear received one report of an incident in which a 3-year-old girl pulled the inner tube over her head and had difficulty removing it. The inner tube is part of the three-piece Fruit Tutu Bikini swimwear set for teddy bears, which includes a two-piece fruit-print bikini. The inner tube is nine inches in diameter and pink with white and yellow flowers printed on it. Build-a-Bear Workshop sold the swimwear sets nationwide from April to August for $12.50. They were made in China. (ConsumerAffairs.com)

-- David Lazarus

Photo: There will be more people traveling for Thanksgiving. Enjoy! Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times